Sunday, April 28, 2013

Inspirational Coil 2 -Masters of the Universe Day-






Probably due to all the "grown up" stuff I have been doing lately (will tell you in time more about that) my subconscious has decided to return to some of the oldest and most childish part of myself and drag it to light.

Today is the Masters of the Universe Day, proclaimed by the (in the pic above) mentioned blogs and websites. Which brings me to share some pictures of my little collection with you.
According to my mother my fixiation on monsters began even before I could speak. And trigger to that was "Masters of the Universe". My "against-everything-fun" parents never let me watch the series on TV or have any figures. So I can not share any nostalgic feelings, some might gain by seeing pieces from the old show.
I only had some audio tapes and "Rokkon"... probably the most boring Masters Character EVER. He is... as the name tells you... a stone. That was harmless enough to convince my üparents that it wouldn't turn my mind into a nightmarish landscape and prevent me from falling prey to the oh-so-cunning-commercial strategies Mattle was plotting back in those days.



Don't they look harmless as a Stone can be?





Anyhow... a couple of years ago, I saw Mantenna standing on a co-workers desk. But In a shiny new and awesome way. Being poor back those days I couldn't afford any of these "Statues", but when ever I had a chance, I marveld at this weird piece of plastic.

A year ago, when I visited Mr.Pink, I dropped by my favourite comic shop in Toronto (seriously, if you ever get to Toronto, check out Silver Snail)
and they had a special offer: The Neca Masters of the Universe Statues for cheap as $4!t...

Since then I call a couple of them my own.

My subconscious recently made me buy more of them of from ebay.


And today I will celebrate these great Models, the nostalgic emotions and a still spooked mother with the following pictures:
Behold:


WIP Sedition Wars Up date 6 -Need your input-

Greetings Archivists!

Last night I had some time to get some stuff done. The last game I had, made me realise, that Necroforms die way to fast and the only things that ever made real damage where the Phase 3 Monsters. So I decided, that I need another Witch and another Brimstone on the field to hopefully become successfull...

The Brimstone is a lovely model and it is quite easy with a little hot water, burned fingers, greenstuff and some patience to get some variety into that sculpt.
Here he is:





Now comes the part where I need your input. The Witch is a great model aswell, with lots of potential.
Some Greenstuff and hot water later, I had the result shown belove. But I have to say, something doesn't look right with the pose. Is it the legs? The hip? Or, my guess, the right arm, pointing somewhat weird backwards?

Please let me know what you think!




See you next time. Then, hopfully, with some paint on the Grendle, Ridley and the two from above!

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

WIP Sedition wars up date 5

Greetings Archivists!

Well, I am probably not the only one finding it difficult to find a good balance between RL and our beloved miniatures. But for the first time in my life I am having serious difficulties of finding spots for the hobby-part in my RL. I know, for most of you, that sounds weird.
I have been a student for quite a while (well seven years ARE quite a while) and the benefits, being independent, being able to sort my timetables as I saw them fit and all the other lovely aspects have granted me time for mad hobby concepts when ever they came up.

With the Real Life becoming more and more "Real", work being serious, relationship being serious, responsibility being really serious, there is less and less time for what has been such a big part of my life.

My main focus right now is, to get one or two miniatures done. Per week. That is ridiculous compared to what I have done a year ago. But, hey, if prognoses are right, in half a year, I will have time again, since I will be unemployed. But enough of this!

In my last holidays, I had some time to bring some paint on miniatures.
I added some more Samaritans to my Vanguard and gave them finally their first "hero", Doc Morgan Vade.

I will spare you the pictures of Samaritan Number 23 (since, aside from some minor head swaps nothing big has happened there). Instead they can be seen in Vades background, being groupies of the corpsman.

Next I have done the first Phase 3 Exo-Forms.









I have borrowed a camera. I am still getting used to the settings, hence the pictures have turned out quite dark. Still need to practice that.
 Until next time!

Monday, April 15, 2013

Archive HFH Up date 3 -Elite-

Greetings Archivists!

Before I start rambling about the wonderful world of bio-engineered horrors from outer spacer, I would like to direct your eyes on bio+metal-engineered horrors from outer space.

Studio McVey just released a picture of the next Sedition Wars additions...
next to a quite stompy exo-suite for the vanguard there is a grand monster of the strain to be seen:
Isn't she sweet? I envy all and everybody living in the UK being able to go the Salute. One fine day, when I am rich and famous, I shall be able to go as well :D I can't wait for SW: Arms of Sorrow... I figure that this monster will be part of the game...


Back to the Bio-engineered Horrors from outer space.
This time I want to drag your attention on the Elite Section of the various codices. Over the years, the section has seen some changes, but the biggest was surely the current Edition. One enormous change was, that the Warriors, the standard Elite-Choice for me, changed into the Troops section.
That made space of all kind of creepiness. In fact so much new creatures were added, that I never came around to add them all to my collection. I just made models for all the ones, I thought would fit game wise.

We start with one of the crazy concepts the "new" codex gave us.
The "Nemesis of Malantai"
Nemesis, I hear you say? Yes, the German translation turned the English "Doom" into "Nemesis". This is one of the very very few examples where I like the German translation better than the original (and let me tell you.... there are some really wierd translations, especially in the DE Codex. Gives you the feeling you have to learn a whole new language.... and that, not in a good way...).

So the "Nemesis" was a concept totally new to nid players. Until then, the soul never played a big role for nids. All we were interested in was bio matter. And suddenly we had a vacuum-cleaner with the power to destroy whole units in THEIR shooting-phase. Oh, the awesome games I had against Orks...
Sadly after a few games, everybody new their potential and tried to kill them on the spot. That, luckily gave me time to move more important units forward.
The Nemesis is one of the few (unique) characters, I have done twice. The first was just for gaming purposes. The idea for the second came in my dreams to me. Yes, sounds weird, I know... but that's the way it was.

 A pretty simple conversion. You can almost spot every component used...













I wanted to have the "soul sucking" aspect visualised on the "Doom of Malantai". At first I had that guy having his soul sucked out through the eyes and mouth.... until I saw that awesome skull...

Next we have the Hive Guard.
While, in all honesty, the fluff concept really lacks coolness and rationality, the rules hit a nerve in the Hiveminds needs. The concept of a static, defensive and protecting organism never made sense to me. At least not in the way the hiveminds approach on prey-worlds is described in the fluff...
The rules made them so important that everybody had to have some of them.
As you might have figured already, I loath models that look the same. So I decided to scratch my own hiveguards. Here is what I came up with...
Liktors!
Liktors are probably every nid players favourite. Model and fluff wise one of the most impressive concepts GW has ever thrown out imho.
Sadly the 2nd edition was the only Edition that had appropriate rules. Moloch and myself have been trying everything we could to gain influence on the design team to let them change the rules and make the Liktors deadly and threatening again. Simply put: We failed. Now, the only units that are afraid of a Liktor might be a Chimera... which is really really weird.
I have quite a lot of Liktors kicking around. But until the gain better rules, this shall be the only one posted:




Finally we have the Venomthropes.
Funky concept, interesting fluff and, with some twists, really cool models.
I didn't like the tentacle-grab-pose the models had. With a little bending, the tentacles could gain a less "aggressive" and more "hey I can actually do something useful with these things... IE: WALK" pose.


So, that's it for this time.
Next up... Sedition Wars again :D


Wednesday, April 10, 2013

WIP Sedition Wars:Operation Genesis Up Date 1

Greetings Archivists!

Over the holidays, I have been working on some more Sedition Wars Miniatures, but this shall be not the topic of this post.

I want to introduce you to a small Project of a me and a friend ("ghostinthemachine" on the McVey-Forums) :

 Sedition Wars: Operation Genesis


Enjoying the first couple of games, we had the idea of making a small fan-based campaign booklet, adding some rules, doing maps with the awesome map edition and doing spotlights on the characters from the second wave. 
The first we want to start with  is Ridley.
She was the miniature that made me buy this game in the firts place. I just had to have something that cool.

Gamewise we decided that she doesn't start of with a kid on her arm (makes running for your life somewhat difficult... sometimes...) and picks up the girl later on.
Of cause we need a new miniature for that. Luckily I had a Hasslefree Miniatures "Kendra", that was almost a perfect double (just without the kid).
The only thing that didn't work out for me was the head...
Again, luckily, I lately ordered some heads from Statuesque Miniatures (thanks again, DaveC for that hint!)
and with some greenstuff I sat down to make the first curly hair in greenstuff EVER.
Of cause I had some pictures of good old Ripley.... ehm Ridley to get the right curleyness...
but judge for yourself.

Stay tuned for more about "Operation Genesis"
Oh...
Pictures...
Of cause...


Monday, April 1, 2013

Happy Easter

Greetings Archivists!
Instead of doing an April-Joke, I rather wish you all a Happy Easter! I hope you had some fun days!